As fire burns, as wind blows, as water rains,
As the earth supports, It is only the One, a flowing river.
Commentary
Behind the ever-present movements of Nature is the One, the Self-Absolute, who presides as an Unseen Controller, detached yet regulating. The Self takes on the form of the five elementals forming the physical core of all action, yet the Self is not affected by their activity. The Svetasvatara Upanishad (VI. 11) makes this interesting declaration: "The one God hidden in all creatures is all-pervading, as the Inner Self of all creatures; presiding over actions, as the abode for all creatures, is the Witness as pure consciousness, alone, and without the strands of nature."
The wise man does not look outward for ultimate Reality, but he looks within, at the Self, which is the primal cause of all activity. Take away the Self and there is no activity. Take away activity and the Self still remains. One does not need to know the actions of the world in order to know the Self-Absolute. Worldly actions belong to the conditioned mind and as the Kaushitaki Upanishad (III. 8) declares, "Mind is not what one should desire to know, one should know the thinker."